ARTFUL CURIOS
Thank goodness bags are not always everyday, serious and practical. They can be art to hang on the wall, they can be architectural and geometric, and they they can sit on a coffee table or mantelpiece, like my sharp-my cornered Dorset-Rex, which could be a liability to actually wear. They can be attention seeking show-offs, to dazzle on a night on the town, conjuring narrative like flamboyant, whimsical, extravagant, preposterous, buzzworthy, bizarre, and ‘beautiful but bonkers’.
As ‘handbag as art’ goes, this is the pièce de résistance. A show-stopping cardboard, felt and peacock feather bag designed by Bouwjaar '63 in celebration of the opening of the The Museum of Bags Amsterdam in 2007. The designers Lia Kroon and Janna Middendorp, both born in 1963, were inspired by the peacock feather bags from the museum’s collection.
The Museum of Bags Amsterdam is home to over 5000 bags, purses, pouches, attaché cases and travel cases, all pieces of art in their own right. I’ll be featuring them here and there throughout my blog pages, but here are a further three delectable Museum beauties to be going on with.
Stunning evening clutch bag ‘Nymph’ made from a sea shell, with leather finishing and crystal leaves decoration. Cora Jacobs, the Philippines, 2009
Ethereal silicone rubber ‘Plunge’ handbag with sequins, Gabrielle Ingram, United Kingdom, 2016. Part of her Under the Sea collection, inspired by sea monsters and mythology and visible in the fish shaped handles and shell motifs.
The ‘cupcake’ has earned iconic status. It was created in 2007 by renowned designer Judith Lieber and is studded with Swarovski crystals. It’s quirky design became popular after a replica appeared in Sex and the City.
Incidentally, one of the most slinky but totally off-the-wall handbag arrangements I’ve ever seen was at the 2011 retrospect of visionary designer Yohji Yamamoto at the V&A, London. On a pristine white dais, a shimmering long black slip dress featured an integrated sequined purse on a chain worked into to the back. How would the wearer sit down? Who cares with such a memorable exit…